In recent years, electric connectors having numerous terminals are being used in the field of automobiles and the like, and are continually become more and more advanced. With an electric connector having numerous terminals, a large force is necessary to mate together connectors and release the connection. Therefore, in the field of automobiles and the like, a lever-type connector to mate with and release from a mating connector utilizing effect of boosting by a lever is used.
Typically, a lever of a lever-type connector is formed in a U shape and includes a pair of side plates and a connecting part for connecting the pair of side plates to each other. Moreover, a rotating pivot for attaching a lever to a housing is provided on each of inner surfaces of ends of both side plates. When attaching the lever to the housing, a worker must spread the ends of the lever manually to join both of the rotating pivots to bearings in the housing, respectively. As a result, when attaching the lever to the housing, it is possible that the worker may spread the ends of the lever too much causing a problem.
Particularly, with a lever-type connector having many electrical terminals, there are cases where reactive force developed when mating with a mating connector increases and bending of the lever occurs. If bending of the lever occurs when mating a lever-type connector with a mating connector, the mating with the mating connector is incomplete. The lever is made of a hard material in order to prevent bending of the lever from occurring when mating a lever-type connector formed multipolar with a mating connector. However, if the lever is made of a hard material, cracking of the lever easily occurs when the worker is spreading the end of the lever.
As a result, a lever-type connector capable of preventing the worker from damaging the lever when attaching the lever to the housing has been developed.
As a conventional lever-type connector capable of reducing damages to the lever by the worker when attaching the lever to the housing, for example, the connector shown in FIG. 21 is well-known.
A lever-type connector 100 shown in FIG. 21 includes a connector housing 110, and a lever 120 attached rotatable in the connector housing 110.
The connector housing 110 includes a terminal receiving portion 111 for receiving a terminal, and an outer tube 112 encompassing the terminal receiving portion 111. A lever installing part 113 for installing the lever 120 is provided on either side of the outer tube 112. Both of the lever installing parts 113 are formed in a pouch form opening toward the front. A lead-in groove 114 is formed on either side of both of the lever installing parts 113. A pivot receiving portion 15 for holding a rotating pivot 123 of the lever 120 is provided on each back end of the respective lead-in grooves 114.
The lever 120 is overall formed in a U shape and includes a pair of side plates 121 (only one is shown in the drawing) and a connecting part 122 for connecting ends of the side plates 121 to each other. The rotating pivot 123 is provided extending inward on respective inner surfaces of the ends of the side plates 121. In addition, a gear piece 124 for joining to a rack 210 of a mating connector 200 is provided at the outer circumference of the respective rotating pivots 123.
When attaching the lever 120 to the connector housing 110, the end of the lever 120 is spread apart, first, and then both of the rotating pivots 123 of the lever 120 are inserted into the lead-in grooves 114 of the lever installing part 113, respectively. Next, the end of the lever 120 is moved while aligning the inner surface of both of the side plates 121 with the outer surface of the lever installing parts 113, and the rotating pivots 123 of both of the side plates 121 are joined to the pivot receiving portions 115 of the lever installing parts 113, respectively.
In this manner, with the lever-type connector 100, the worker does not need to perform the operation of spreading the end of the lever 120 and operation of moving the lever 120 to a predetermined position simultaneously. As a result, the worker may be dedicated to the operation of moving the lever to a predetermined position.
Accordingly, with the lever-type connector 100, provision of the lever installing parts 113 formed in a pouch shape allows easy application of the U-shaped lever 120 to the connector housing 110.
However, with the lever-type connector 100 shown in FIG. 21, a mechanism that aggressively spreads the end of the lever 120 is not provided. Accordingly, with the lever-type connector 100, damage of the lever 120 cannot be prevented when the worker spreads the end of the lever 120.
Moreover, there are cases where a contact may be replaced during maintenance of a lever-type connector onboard an automobile or the like.
In particular, with a lever-type connector having a wire cover, which covers electrical wires connected to contacts contained in a housing, the worker must remove the levers and the wire cover from the housing manually when replacing a contact.
As a result, with a lever-type connector with a wire cover, when removing the lever from the housing, there is a problem that the worker damages the lever by spreading the end of the lever too much.